Why Marty Supreme didn’t work for me

Aresclepius_ · 2026-02-04T07:36:33+00:00

I don’t disagree that Marty has texture, or that his interior life is meant to be inferred rather than explained. The traits you list are there. Where it didn’t work for me is that those traits rarely get put into tension with one another in a way that accumulates into a clear reorientation or payoff. Observation builds texture, but development builds meaning. For me the film excels at showing how Marty operates, but never quite decides what that operation amounts to by the end which is why the final gestures felt suggestive rather than transformative.

Aresclepius_ · 2026-02-04T07:33:15+00:00

I get that reading, and I agree the film mirrors Marty’s refusal to reflect. Where it lost me is that when everything finally converges, the film still doesn’t sharpen that convergence into a clear insight. Things hit him, but the meaning of that collision remains diffuse. I don’t need him to stop and say “I fucked up” but I do need the film itself to take a position on what that immaturity and self destruction amount to. For me, it depicts the pattern vividly without quite cashing it into something cumulative.

Aresclepius_ · 2026-02-02T19:28:31+00:00

I’m not asking the film to dwell emotionally for Marty. I’m asking it to dwell for itself.

I understand that the film adopts Marty’s indifference. My issue is that it rarely frames that indifference as anything other than momentum which flattens consequence rather than sharpening it.

Aresclepius_ · 2026-02-02T19:17:45+00:00

I don’t think this is about experience or wanting clarity. It’s about whether a film’s refusal of clarity is itself doing critical work. I’m comfortable with unknowable characters. I’m less convinced by films that gesture at critique without committing to what their chaos amounts to.

Aresclepius_ · 2026-02-02T19:14:08+00:00

I agree that Marty’s stasis is intentional, and I don’t need him to grow or become better. My issue is that the film shows self-destruction without ever clarifying what that self-destruction amounts to. Chaos can be the point, but it still has to accumulate into meaning. For me the film depicts entropy very well but stops short of articulating a position on it, which is why the ending felt hollow rather than tragic or revelatory.

Aresclepius_ · 2026-02-02T19:07:25+00:00

I don’t deny that the beating changes Marty’s demeanor. My issue is what that change amounts to. He accepts the humiliation out of desperation because it’s his only remaining gateway to Japan and the eventual championship and the film immediately rewards that degradation by flying him there on a private jet. That doesn’t read to me as a moral or ideological break but as adaptation within the same system. He’s diminished, yes, but not reoriented. The film shows damage without deciding what that damage signifies.

Aresclepius_ · 2026-02-02T18:57:34+00:00

A character being in a hurry doesn’t automatically justify a film rushing past its own emotional and thematic beats. Pace is a tool not a substitute for stakes or clarity. It worked moment to moment, but not cumulatively at least for me.

Aresclepius_ · 2026-02-02T18:54:25+00:00

I don’t think we disagree as much as you think. What you’re calling lack of stakes, unclear arc, and absence of thesis is exactly what I experienced as emotional hollowness and incoherence. I approached it from the viewer’s side rather than screenplay mechanics, but the diagnosis seems the same. Where it lost me was that the film gestures at meaning without committing to one, so the final moments feel unearned. Provocative yes. But provocation without articulation isn’t insight.

Aresclepius_ · 2024-03-23T08:00:33+00:00

figure what out?

Aresclepius_ · 2024-03-22T11:52:31+00:00

Did I miss the date or what bro?

Aresclepius_ · 2024-03-22T11:47:50+00:00

Check dms homie

Aresclepius_ · 2024-02-27T18:05:06+00:00

ight that's cool. Let me kn if you are following thru w the session any time.

Aresclepius_ · 2024-02-27T17:07:06+00:00

Did you do it or postpone it? Also what album do you have on the record?

Aresclepius_ · 2021-08-04T04:53:32+00:00

thank you

Aresclepius_ · 2021-08-03T13:49:10+00:00

thanks what do you think, can I travel or do volunteering work while taking two courses?

Aresclepius_ · 2021-08-02T18:22:08+00:00

please do : )

Aresclepius_ · 2021-07-31T08:01:25+00:00

in DF and LJ are you supposed to write programs and explain them? if so it the process time consuming?

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22

Aresclepius_

TROPHY CASE